SR
Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works)/Book 1 · Liber Divinorum Operum — Pars 1
Chapter 4LDO.1.4

PRIMA VISIO, cap. IV

The Golden Circle of Faith

A golden circle around the face's head symbolizes the Catholic faith spreading across the world, embracing true love through which God redeemed humanity and revealed the Trinity.

And a large circle of golden color surrounds the head of that same face, because the Catholic faith, spread throughout the whole world, rising in the first dawn with extraordinary splendor, embraces the excellence of the generosity of true love with every devotion, where God in the humanity of his own Son redeemed man, and through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit strengthened him, so that one God in the Trinity might be known, who without time of beginning, before all ages, was God in his divinity.

The Face of the Father Above

An older face appears above the head, representing the eternal kindness of the Divinity that aids the faithful and holds the loftiness of supreme love through which Christ leads the lost to heaven.

But in the same circle, above that same head, another face appears, like that of an older man — this means that to the faithful, the all-surpassing kindness of the Divinity, which has no beginning and no end, comes to their aid, so that the chin and beard of that same face touch the crown of this head, because the Divinity, by ordering and protecting all things, holds the loftiness of supreme love, where the Son of God in his humanity will lead lost people back to heavenly things.

The Inseparability of Love

The love of God and neighbor, strengthened by faith, cannot be separated.

The love of God and of neighbor, strengthened by the power of faith, cannot be separated.

Read the original Latin

Et circulus amplus aureique coloris caput ejusdem faciei circumdat, quia fides catholica per totum orbem terrarum diffusa, in prima aurora eximii fulgoris surgens, excellentiam largitatis verae charitatis omni devotione complectitur, ubi Deus in humanitate Filii sui hominem redemit, et per infusionem Spiritus sancti illum confirmavit, ita ut unus Deus in Trinitate cognoscatur, qui sine tempore initii ante aevum Deus in divinitate fuit. Quod autem in eodem circulo supra idem caput alia facies velut senioris viri apparet, hoc est quod fidelibus omnia excellens benignitas Divinitatis, quae sine initio et fine est, succurrit, ita ut ejusdem faciei mentum et barba verticem capitis hujus tangat, quoniam Divinitas disponendo et protegendo omnia celsitudinem summae charitatis obtinet, ubi Filius Dei in humanitate sua perditos homines ad coelestia reducet.

Quod dilectio Dei et proximi virtute fidei roborata separari non possit.

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